Study Notes: Input-Output For Bank PO |

Input-Output play an important role in an examination. 5 Questions come from this topic in every PO and Clerk level examination. Using a right approach you can easily score a good marks in this topic.

In input-output problems you are asked to imagine that there is some kind of computer or a word-procesing machine and this machine performs some operations on a given input. These operations are performed repeatedly as per a per-fixed pattern or rule and subsequently we have different output in different steps.

These (Input-output) types of questions regularly come in the competitive examinations (specially Bank PO exam).
Although they may look complex but they are not so tough only factor in that they are time consuming and time is
premium in a competitive test these days.
Guidelines: (Approach for solving the questions)
(1) Our 1st step will be to see the input.
(2) In 2nd step, we should see the final output.
(3) And at last, we should focus on first step and so on to understand the pattern of arrangement.

Types of pattern followed in Input-output:
* Words are in ascending order.
For example : a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i……
* Words are in descending order
For example : X, W, S, P, K, H, D…….
* Number are in ascending order.
For example : 1, 2, 7, 9, 10, 13, 17, 22, ……….
* Numbers are in descending order.
For example : 29, 26, 24, 21, 17, 13, 10, 9, 7, 4,…….
* count of words are in ascending order.
For example : I, do, pen, wise, Mango, should ……….
* Count of words are in descending order.
For example : Mangoes, could, kite can, so, I,…..
* Sum of digits in ascending order
For example : 10, 11, 21, 13, 32, 51, 61, 81, 28……..
* Sum of digits in descending order.
For example : 28, 81, 61, 51, 32, 13, 21, 11, 10……

Points to Remember
(1) In Input-output, the most important thing is to understand the pattern of the steps, how they are arranging.
(2) Looking at the last and other steps, you can understand the pattern of question.
(3) Be careful in mix shifting pattern, i.e. shifting from both left and right side.
(4) Some times characters/digits get automatically arranged in steps. So, for that step another
increasing/decreasing characters/digits should be arranged.
(5) The most important thing is to be noted that from given step, previous step can’t be determined.

Example 1- Input: 2568 7625 9732 8214 1129 4622
Step I: 8652 7652 9732 8421 9211 6422
Step II: 6422 7652 8421 8652 9211 9732
Step III: 62 72 81 82 91 92
Step IV: 4 5 7 6 8 7
Explanation: Logic- For step I- All the digits of the given numbers are arranged in descending order within the numbers.
For Step II- All the numbers obtained in step I are arranged in ascending order from the left end.
For Step III- middle two digits of the numbers are omitted.
For step IV- The digits of the numbers obtained in step III are subtracted.

Example 2- Input: phase 73 iconic 24 record 15 under 39 summer 54 36 across
Step I: 24 phase iconic record 15 under 39 summer 54 36 across 73
Step II: phase 24 iconic record 15 39 summer 54 36 across 73 under
Step III: 36 phase 24 iconic record 15 summer 54 across 73 under 39
Step IV: record 36 phase 24 15 summer 54 across 73 under 39 iconic
Step V: 54 record 36 phase 24 summer across 73 under 39 iconic 15
Step VI: summer 54 record 36 phase 24 73 under 39 iconic 15 across
Exaplanation: Logic- (i) The words and numbers are arranged in alternatively in every step starting from the numbers. Two words/number are arranged in each step.
(ii) Even numbers are arranged at the leftmost end in increasing order, while the odd numbers are arranged at the rightmost end in decreasing order in each alternate step.
(iii) The words starting with a consonant are arranged at the left most end in increasing alphabetical order and the words starting with a vowel are arranged at the rightmost end in decreasing alphabetical order in each step.

Example 3- Input: 53 86 22 15 48 93 37 74
Step I: 22 53 86 15 48 93 37 74
Step II: 93 22 53 86 15 48 37 74
Step III: 48 93 22 53 86 15 37 74
Step IV: 53 48 93 22 86 15 37 74
Step V: 74 53 48 93 22 86 15 37
Step VI: 37 74 53 48 93 22 86 15
Step VII: 86 37 74 53 48 93 22 15
Step VIII: 15 86 37 74 53 48 93 22
Explaination: Logic- One even and one odd number are arranged in each alternate step.
Even numbers are arranged at the leftmost end in increasing order, while the odd numbers are arranged at the leftmost end in decreasing order in each alternate step.